1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an automatic telephone-answering and message-recording apparatus capable of maintaining a calling state in response to a calling signal coming over a telephone line, transmitting previously recorded answer messages over the telephone line, and recording incoming messages received over the telephone line, and, more particularly, to such an apparatus for automatically switching from a first track to another on a multi-track message recording tape or for switching from a first independent message recording tape to another, when the first recording medium has run to a position near the end thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As the tape (or recording time) used for a telephone-answering apparatus is limited in length, a plurality of recording sections for recording incoming messages on tracks or separated tapes must be provided and must be operated sequentially in order to record a large volume of incoming messages. Moreover, it is desirable to control each recording section so that the next recording section may be operated for the first time when the tape in the first recording section has reached a predetermined position near its end and when the incoming messages have ended after the predetermined position has been reached.